This invention relates generally to the field of food processing, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for removing feathers from slaughtered poultry.
It is conventional to remove feathers by passing birds against an array of moving rubber fingers. Frictional forces between the fingers and the feathers are sufficient to remove all but the smallest feathers from the bird. The remaining few feathers may be removed by hand and/or singing.
One type of plucking apparatus has plural banks of heads rotating on parallel axes; these axes are aligned in one or more planes, and the path along which the birds are moved is parallel to such planes. The fingers extend from their heads generally parallel to the axes of the heads, toward the path of the birds.
The banks of picker heads in such devices are normally stationary, but prior inventors have proposed various arrangements whereby the position and/or orientation of the banks may be adjusted, to optimize performance, or to adapt the unit to different species or sizes of birds. The following U.S. patents are cited as examples of this technology: U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,484,236, 3,235,904, 3,277,515, 3,402,424, 3,471,893, 3,477,093, 3,585,675, 3,596,309, 4,064,596, 4,217,678, 3,514,879 and 3,884,318.